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Correction: The two men killed in a plane crash while hunting coyotes Friday in Wayne County worked for Wildlife Services. A story in Saturday's edition misidentified the federal agency.
Two federal Wildlife Services predator-control officers were killed in a single-engine plane crash Friday morning while hunting coyotes in Wayne County.
The two-seater plane, owned by the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, went down about 8:30 a.m. on Parker Mountain, west of Loa.
Police have not released the cause of the crash or the names of the victims.
The men were searching for coyotes that had killed sheep in the area a day earlier, said U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Carol Bannerman.
Wildlife Services works with the state's agriculture department to control predators, and coyotes are the main target, said Kyle Stephens, deputy commissioner of the UDAF.
Trappers, flying low, often shoot coyotes from helicopters and airplanes, Stephens said.
"Any time you're in this type of aircraft and flying low to the ground on hilly terrain, there's a higher degree of risk," Stephens said.
Environmental groups have long criticized the killing of coyotes, saying it wastes taxpayer money, is dangerous and ineffective.
Friday's deaths bring to five the number of Wildlife Services employees killed in aircraft crashes in Utah since 1996.
* In January 1998, a 13-year veteran of predator-control died while shooting coyotes from a two-seat helicopter that crashed south of Strawberry Reservoir in Wasatch County.
* In October 1996, two Wildlife Services officers died on a coyote-hunting mission when the state-owned airplane they were in went down in Millard County.
Both of those accidents were the result of aircraft malfunction, Stephens said.
Wildlife Services suspended aerial operations Friday pending more information on what caused the crash, according to the USDA.
The sheriff's office, Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating possible causes of the wreck.